


Factors of life

by AliaMael



Series: Learning curve [1]
Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Slurs, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25773061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliaMael/pseuds/AliaMael
Summary: People tend to find Sho weird, but then he doesn't understand people either.There is a good reason for that.(Not that he knows it.)
Relationships: Hanekoma Sanae & Minamimoto Sho
Series: Learning curve [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888963
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Factors of life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JaynisKobb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaynisKobb/gifts).



> This fic is building on the ideas of [@Jaynis_Kobb](https://twitter.com/Jaynis_Kobb) on Twitter. They kindly let me play with their theory and I'm very thankful for that ♥ I had a blast writing this and I hope you'll enjoy reading it =)
> 
> If you want to read the original thread, it's [there](https://twitter.com/Jaynis_Kobb/status/1284296035553153024), but it spoils the whole fic. You've been warned ^^

"You're such a fucking weirdo!"

Sho doesn't even react. It's his third day in the Game, and he's already used to his Partner throwing jabs at him. It doesn't even hurt, which only fuels the angry confusion of said Partner.

"Minamimoto! Are you even listening to me?!"  
"Yeah, yeah…"  
"Is this a game for you?"  
"It _is_ a Game," Sho points out.

He thinks it's only reasonable to state the truth, but apparently his Partner –Hinata Fujimori, he needs to remember to use his name, because calling him only "Partner" is somehow judged not good, for no reason Sho can discern– so, Fujimori visibly disagrees.

"You need to take this seriously dammit!"

Sho _is_ taking it seriously. He's playing to win, but he sees no point in denying the fact that the whole setup is indeed a Game. It's even the official name of the thing, for fuck's sake!

"I won't let you slow me down!" Fujimori goes on.  
"You're the one slowing me down," Sho finally snaps, because it's true. Fujimori is an OK Player, but Sho is faster, more precise, more _deadly_.  
"That's rich coming from you! You don't even _care_ about getting your life back, how could I slow you when you're not aiming for anything?!"  
"I'm aiming to win."

Fujimori angrily kicks at the asphalt. Sho stares. Yes, his life seems unimportant. Yes, it very much feels like a thing from the past already. That doesn't mean he doesn't have nor want a future. What is so difficult to comprehend in that simple statement?

It's the fifth day of the Game, and Fujimori is looking at Sho with horrified disgust. Sho doesn't understand.

"How could you let them _die_ like this?"  
"Get Erased," Sho corrects. "They were already dead."  
"That's not the point! We could have helped them!"

Sho blinks.

"They were Players," he says. "They were competition. I thought you wanted to win."  
"I… Of course I want to win, but I'm not an assassin!"  
"You don't have a problem Erasing Noise."

Fujimori stares like Sho just grew a second head.

"They're… Noise," he slowly says.  
"Yeah, and?" Sho asks.  
"You can't be… you're fucking serious. You really don't get the difference between Noise and actual _people_."  
"I think it's you who don't get the _actual_ difference," Sho counters.

Of course they're not the same. Sho is not _blind_. But he can feel that Noise, living people, Players, even Reapers… they're all made of the same cloth, somehow. He _knows_ it, he just doesn't have the words to make his Partner understand.

"Were you always such a sociopath or did you lose your freaking humanity as your Entry Fee?"

Sho doesn't think he's a sociopath. He understands and feels emotions. It's not his fault if Fujimori ignores Sho's moods and refuses to try to understand that Sho doesn't have the same priorities, the same way to perceive the world.

But he has no clue what his Entry Fee was. He doesn't feel different from before.

It doesn't seem important, though.

It's the end of the Game, and they made it through. Sho and Fujimori are the only Players left. Fujimori still thinks it's Sho's fault somehow, but it's not. He wasn't the one to Erase them. He didn't even push them in the right (wrong) direction.

Anyway, they're in front of the Conductor, and Sho feels… hooked, maybe? There's something in the Conductor that draws him in, and it's with this puzzling feeling at the back of his mind that he listens to the announcement that Fujimori is the winner of this Game. Through his obvious relief, Fujimori seems oddly guilty when he looks at Sho.

Sho is perfectly fine with this result. He knew from the start that he didn't want to get his life back. There's nothing for him in the RG. His place is here. Gaining the right to become a Reaper is winning the Game, for him.

Fujimori is sent to the Composer for reincarnation, and the Conductor asks Sho to follow him. He goes to obey, but something makes him look back.

He only catches a glance of the Composer, a blurry shape filled with light, but there is a _pull_ far more intense than what he feels toward the Conductor. It lasts just a second, but it leaves Sho with a craving for _something_. 

He doesn't know what for.

Sho is a Wall Reaper and he's damn good at his job. Summoning Noise for the Players to fight is easy as breathing. Other Support Reapers stick to fetch quests or silly tasks. Sho doesn't understand. Some of them are uncomfortable with the idea of putting the Players in danger, which is ridiculous. That's the whole point of their job, after all. Some just seem to find it difficult to create Noise.

How can it be difficult?

It's only taking… something that's already there and just… changing…

Sho needs words or he's going to go mad trying to explain. He knows instinctively how to do it, and his instinct is _very_ good, but that wall whenever he tries to talk about it is immensely frustrating.

Sho is a Harrier Reaper and around him everyone only talks about Music. Of course he already realized that there were a lot of words related to that concept involved in the Game –Composer, Conductor, Frequency...– but they all talk like everything is art, and art is impossible to define, to grasp, to predict. Sho knows to trust his instinct, and his instinct tells him that's garbage. _Nothing_ in the Game is unpredictable. It's all there, plain to see if you know how to look.

He researches music. Scales, rhythm, harmony, dissonance, it's not _wrong_ but it's not what he means either. Frequency leads him to physics, formulas and mathematical models and _yes_ , _this_ is what he means. He devours books and websites dedicated to math, loses sleep over it, doesn't care that he looks like a zombie for days. (Actually, it gets to the point where someone snitches on him to the Officers, and the Conductor comes to speak to him one-to-one, which is weirdly exhilarating. The fascination he cannot explain is still there.) (So maybe it counts as a win.)

Anyway, math makes sense. Math is clear, logical, and reflects what he _feels_. It's everyone else who doesn't make sense to him. Now he can explain that everything is fractal, repeating the same pattern when you pull it up or down in Frequency. He can point out that while everyone is gushing about how every Music is different, it's actually all made of sinusoids, and each individual is just a Fourier series you can calculate, dissect and potentially modify if you're powerful enough.

Nobody understands. Sho decides to stop trying.

The world is made of numbers and he can calculate everything. For the first time, his brain has caught up to his instinct, and it's the _best_ feeling _ever_.

Sho makes it to Officer in record time because he's very, _very_ good at Erasing Players. He's not even _trying_ , it's just so… easy. Instinctive.

Easy but not _satisfying_.

After the respite of discovering math, it's as if everything came down on him harder than before. He's frustrated and he doesn't know _why_. He feels like an animal in a too small cage, pacing, clawing at the bars of his jail. Erasing Players is _right_ but there's something missing. It's like needing so badly to scratch an itch and only being able to gently pat the spot once.

It's not enough. Nothing is enough.

Being an Officer is not better. More than ever, he's supposed to work with people. Those same people who think he's weird, crazy, a waste of potential… he could go on for hours, he heard it all. And somehow it's _his_ fault that team work fails again and again? They don't actually want him to work with them, so why would he even try?

Now that he sees the Conductor regularly, the pull bloomed into something more complex. He wants to get closer to him. He wants to touch him. He wants… he's not sure what he wants. He can't help but do his best to infuriate him. He tries to go to the meetings on time, and find himself lingering two blocks away to be sure to be late. He tries to call him "Sir" like everyone else and somehow it's a too familiar nickname that passes his lips.

It's not a conscious decision on his part, and he hates that he can calculate the world but not _himself_. He hates that he can't even _predict_ his own actions.

The Conductor never reacts with more than a mild scolding. Sho is utterly, violently disappointed, even though he has no idea what he's hoping for.

He needs something to happen, something to _change_. He feels like he's going to explode if he can't find how to control that rising tension.

He prowls the streets at night, unable to calm down enough to sleep, and that's how he meets Sanae Hanekoma.

The man is different. Sho can feel that he hides a lot behind his facade of nonchalant barista. For starters, Sho feels drawn to him too, but unlike the Conductor (and the Composer) Hanekoma also makes him feel… oddly safe around him.

Sho cannot help but trust him.

(He may freak out a bit about that when he's alone later, but Hanekoma makes it so _easy_ to feel at ease around him and Sho's instincts _never_ fail him, so he ends up accepting it.)

Hanekoma is also the first person to actually _listen_ to him. He doesn't hide that Sho loses him sometimes when he rants about math, but he genuinely tries to understand, asks questions, and knows when Sho just needs to vent, letting him talk without interrupting.

It helps. It helps more than Sho would have anticipated, and _still_ it's not enough.

Sho paces in WildKat, Hanekoma following him with worried eyes. He often glances at Sho's left hand, the one blackened by a tattoo Sho doesn't remember getting. (But then, he doesn't really remember things from his life. It's all blurry since he got in the Game. He doesn't miss the memories, though, it just irks him when people prod at his past.)

One night –because he always ends up in WildKat at night lately– Hanekoma interrupts his nervous pacing with a hand on his shoulder. Sho almost snaps at him, but he's so unused to physical contact that it throws him off balance for a while.

"You're itching for a fight, aren't you?" Hanekoma asks.

Sho blinks, confused.

"I don't want to fight you," he answers.

But now that the idea is in his mind, he realizes that it's not exactly true. He likes Hanekoma, he's the only person he enjoys spending time with, the only person he trusts, but…

Hanekoma smirks.

"Hey, nothing wrong in a friendly fight if I offer. You look like you need it."

Sho stares. His heart is already beating faster in anticipation, his world narrowing down to Hanekoma, the sounds from the street fading into nothing. 

It takes him three tries to manage to get the words out.

"I'm very good at reducing people to the null constant," he warns.  
"I'm very good at staying alive," Hanekoma smiles back.

Then without warning Hanekoma grabs his arm and teleports them. (Sho _knew_ he was not just a barista.) Sho looks around him and doesn't recognize the place.

"Where are we?"  
"Pork City," Hanekoma answers. "It's out of the way, perfect place to blow off steam without drawing too much attention."

Sho wants that fight, but he hesitates still. Hanekoma is not a Player, not a Reaper. He has no idea how much he can take.

"Do your worst," Hanekoma says.

Instantly, Sho fills the air with Noise. Hanekoma makes a small, dismissive hand gesture and it's all gone in a blink. Sho gapes. Hanekoma laughs, before turning more serious, if playful.

"You want a fight, come get it _yourself_."

Sho has never attacked anyone directly. His summoned Noise is so powerful that no Player has been able to take it down so far, and Hanekoma just… ignored it.

Sho grins. Hanekoma can really take it. He doesn't have to restrain himself.

So for the first time Sho lets himself turn into his Noise form, and it's a liberation. Suddenly he can breathe again, and he throws himself at Hanekoma without thinking, instinct taking over once more.

They fight for a while. At some point Hanekoma stops dodging and just tapping him; to Sho's surprise he turns into a Noise form too –one closely similar to Sho's– and begins attacking back. It gets way more intense after that, and when Sho eventually finds himself pinned down to the floor, head spinning, he feels calmer than he can ever remember being.

"Better?" Hanekoma asks, going back to his usual body.

Sho lets his own shape slowly melt back to normal. Lying down on his back on the roof of Pork City feels nice, right now.

"Sho?" Hanekoma insists, a hint of worry creeping into his voice.  
" 'm good."

Hanekoma smiles and lies down next to him.

"Anytime."

After that, Sho finds a balance. When he's too worked up to sleep, he goes to Hanekoma and they fight until he can think again. It's not perfect, but it's sufficient.

He works. He talks to Hanekoma. He fights.

He sleeps.

He dreams of the Composer. He dreams of ripping Him up with his claws, his fangs, and he wakes up drenched in sweat, his heart beating wildly, snapped out of sleep by a pleasure so intense he can only call it a non sexual orgasm.

It frightens him.

(It frightens him that it excites him.)

Sho tries to forget. (He can't.)

He tries to fill his days so he has no time left to overthink everything. He begins creating structures out of garbage on a whim, just to see how solid he can make them with the way he reads the equations of the whole world around him, but he discovers he enjoys it. There's something satisfying in making a visual representation of his calculations.

(Of course everyone thinks he's gone a bit more crazy. Well, everyone save Hanekoma.)

(He still dreams of the Composer.)

Time goes on.

Slowly, something shifts in Shibuya. At first Sho thinks he's imagining it, because he's always so full of nervous tension, but no, it's not him. The whole city is becoming tense. _Hanekoma_ is becoming tense, which is almost more creepy.

When Sho mentions it, Hanekoma looks like something inevitable just happened. He doesn't seem happy about it.

"It's the Composer," Hanekoma finally says.  
"What do you mean?"  
"He's getting… unsatisfied of the city."

Sho blinks. He thought the Composer basically _was_ the city.

"Wanna learn something dangerous?" Hanekoma asks, seemingly unrelated.

It takes Sho no time at all to understand that it is very, very related.

Taboo comes easy to him, but that's no surprise. Nothing in the UG ever felt difficult to him, it's all so natural, so… instinctive. Always, always his instinct. Never wrong.

A Game unlike any other starts. 

As if he knew about Sho's recurring dreams, Hanekoma encourages him to take out the Composer. The first attempt, in the RG, feels all wrong. It fails spectacularly, but Sho's not even sure it's because the Composer is much more powerful than him. Tuning down to the RG and using a _gun_ felt way too odd when it should be his claws tearing up the Composer's body.

For a week, he can't track him down.

Then he finds him back, and he's Game Master. This time, he'll get it _right_. No gun, no Mission to fail, no Noise getting the kill in his stead. A direct fight is all he needs, all he ever needed since becoming a Reaper.

The choice of battlefield is not even a question. There's only one spot where such a fight could take place. After all, even if he didn't know by then, he's been training for this moment for months.

Sho is on top of Pork City, and he loses.

Sho wakes up on the refinery sigil and _everything_ is off balance. His body feels different, and yet so much more himself than before. His senses feel sharper, and yet it's so much more difficult to interpret what's around him. He's vibrating with energy, the need to… to…

He needs, he needs, _he needs_.

When he gets back to himself, WildKat is reduced to rubble. Sho is kneeling on the floor, clinging to a stool, the cold of the metal against the skin of his forehead the only thing anchoring him. (Barely.)

Hanekoma is not here. Sho sought him out on pure instinct, used to rely on him when nothing feels right, but he's not here.

For the first time, Sho feels utterly _alone_.

He clings to the only thing he has left, the only goal his mind and his instinct agree on.

Seek the Composer.

_Destroy Him._

Sho wakes up under a pile of garbage. Everything hurts. He's pretty sure he's bleeding and has several broken bones. He feels dizzy until whatever is crushing his left leg is moved. Then the abrupt pain makes all his senses sharper. He can smell the metal, the water of the nearby river. His own blood.

His breath is shaky. He's borderline sobbing.

Something else is removed from his back and he _screams_.

Next thing he knows, someone is holding him, a hand brushing his temple very lightly. Sho doesn't think, _cannot_ think, just acts on instinct.

He bites.

He hears a swear, followed by his name and words he can't make out. Slowly, very slowly, he becomes aware of the gentle warmth pushing the pain away. The static in his ears recedes.

Someone is… healing him?

"Are you sure he doesn't have the rabies?" the Composer is saying, cruelly amused.  
"Just shut up J", Hanekoma sighs.

Sho blinks, trying to focus. Hanekoma is holding him, healing him, and Sho can taste his blood in his mouth. A small part of him knows he should open his jaw, get his teeth out of the wound, but he feels unable to move.

At last, he manages to relax. Hanekoma looks at him and he knows Sho enough to recognize the awareness in his eyes.

"Welcome back," he softly says.

The Composer giggles, which makes Sho tense. He feels guilty when Hanekoma winces and he _finally_ manages to release his hand.

"Awwww, how cute," the Composer sing-songs. "I didn't think you'd get attached to a pet like that."  
"Sho is _not_ a pet," Hanekoma immediately denies.

His hand shines for a few seconds, and then it's like Sho never bit him at all. (Except for the taste lingering on his tongue.)

"Well, you're basically adopting Taboo Noise," the Composer points out. "Unless you think you can… unTaboo him?"

Hanekoma goes very, very still.

"That's not… Sho is a _person_ , Josh!"  
"Avoiding the question, Sanae?"

Sho lets his eyes close. He feels empty. Numb. He distractedly notes that almost dying is an efficient way to get rid of his never ending excess of energy.

"Sho?" Hanekoma calls, immediately worried.  
"Calm down, he just needs rest," the Composer interjects, voice heavy with exasperation.

Hanekoma tightens his hold on Sho. His heart is beating too fast.

"Alright…"

Hanekoma carefully lifts Sho in his arms. Sho feels like a rag doll, but he trusts Hanekoma. He doesn't need to fight for control. Hanekoma starts walking, and even if his footsteps are the only ones Sho can hear, he feels the Composer following them.

(Slowly, very slowly, the urge to _destroy_ the Composer grows back somewhere deep inside of Sho.)

(For now he's too exhausted to move, and Hanekoma's presence gives him clarity of mind, but… soon.)

Eventually, Hanekoma gently puts Sho down on a couch. Sho needs a few seconds to remember that the Dead God's Pad was not that far from the place where he confronted the Composer, and by then Hanekoma has a hand in Sho's hair, his thighs pillowing Sho's head.

The Composer chuckles.

"You look like an overprotective parent. That's a bit ridiculous, don't you think?"

Sho can feel Hanekoma tense.

"What do you mean?"  
"Well, look at him. He's covered in Taboo marks. It's obvious to anyone with eyes that he's a feral predator, and you treat him like a kitten."  
"I treat him like the _person_ he is."  
"My, Sanae, you insist an awful lot on that word, hmm?"  
"Well apparently you need repetition to understand…"

A finger touches Sho's arm, and he _knows_ it's the Composer. It tingles, like electricity crackling directly against his nerves. Sho twitches.

"Josh!"  
"Funny how both his arms match, now…" the Composer says, his finger tracing Sho's veins toward his shoulder.

Hanekoma shifts, and the contact disappears. The Composer laughs.

"Overprotective!" he sing-songs.  
"What do you want?" Hanekoma sighs.

The Composer's voice suddenly turns dead serious.

"I want the truth."  
"I…"  
"The truth about him. Now. Or should I list every oddity?"

There is a silence. Hanekoma's hand is shaking.

"Hmm, alright," the Composer goes on. "Why does he have six wings? Why do the new marks from Taboo match so perfectly his 'tattoo' from before? Why do you care so much about him when I never saw you getting close to anybody but me?"  
"I think you already have your idea," Hanekoma answers, "and I won't be able to change your mind."  
"I want to hear it from you."

Another silence. Then Hanekoma says, as if he's adding to something spoken out loud:

"But that's not _important_!"  
"No? Even with the fact that he's going mad? You saw what he did to WildKat. He even bit you when you tried to heal him!"  
"I'm sure many humans would have done the same at that point!"

Something in Sho freezes, ice cold. The Composer giggles.

"Got you."  
"What?"

Sho is already lying down, but he feels dizzy all the same. Not human? What does it even mean?

"You said it out loud," the Composer says.  
"… and?" Hanekoma asks, defensive.  
"And your little experiment has been awake all along."  
" _What?!_ "

Experiment?

Sho opens his eyes. Hanekoma is looking at him with a mix of shock and horror.

"Sho…" he begins, then trails off.  
"What does it mean?" Sho manages to pronounce despite his exhaustion and rising panic.  
"It… it's not…"

Something snaps.

"WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!"

Sho is up, towering over Hanekoma who's still on the couch. He can feel his claws extending, his blood rushing.

"I… I created you," Hanekoma finally says, barely audible. He looks heartbroken. "You're made of several Taboo Noise combined together. I thought using a refinery sigil for your resurrection would be safe. It wasn't supposed to affect you like this…"

Sho stares. It's too much, too fast. He cannot process it.

He's shaking.

Everything is getting blurry. His own skin feels foreign. His legs are almost unable to support him and yet he feels the urge to run, to _pounce_.

"Sho, please, listen to me," Hanekoma says –begs, really.

Sho growls.

"You lied to me from the start," he manages between gritted teeth. "Why should I listen to YOU?!"  
"I _hid_ things from you but I didn't lie. I don't want to lie to you. I want to help you."

Sho hates that he can't help but believe him. Trust him.

He wants to _shatter_ him.

Before he's even conscious of moving, his claws are digging in Hanekoma's shoulders, pinning him to the couch. Hanekoma bites down a whimper of pain. Blood slowly soaks his shirt.

He doesn't fight back.

"Sho… You always say that everything, _everyone_ is a function. And you're right. The fact that you got pulled out of your initial domain of definition doesn't mean anything. Everyone undergoes a transformation when they come to the UG. You're a _person_. You're exactly as calculable as anyone else. No more and no less."

Hanekoma's blood is warm on Sho's fingers. And even though he can feel that Hanekoma is not exactly a regular human, he still looks the part. No more and no less.

Sho's claws fade away and his legs finally give out. He falls on Hanekoma, who immediately catches him. Like it's the most natural thing in the world.

"I've got you," Hanekoma whispers.

Sho wonders who he's trying to reassure the most.

"Well, I'm surprised you managed to get through to him," the Composer comments.

Sho snarls at him.

"Did you code him to attack me?" the Composer asks idly. "Just curious."  
"No, I didn't. I…"

Even though Hanekoma's still answering the Composer, it's obvious in his tone that he's talking for Sho.

"I did code him to have no interest in his past, and to trust me. Everything else is purely him."  
"Uh. Interesting."  
"I want to destroy the Conductor too," Sho blurts out. Realizes directly out loud, more like.

He never connected the dots before, but now it's painfully obvious.

"Oh? Just the two of us?" the Composer asks, curious.  
"… maybe Hanekoma, too, but it's… it's not the same. Konishi sometimes," Sho adds after a second of reflection, "but I'm pretty sure even Megs wants to destroy her at times so I'm not sure it counts."

The Composer unexpectedly dissolves into a pile of giggles. He almost chokes on his laughter and grabs the table to stay upright.

"Alright," he finally says when he gets back enough breathe to talk, "that's it, we're keeping him."  
"For the last time, _Sho is not a pet_ ," Hanekoma counters, annoyed.

Sho can feel Hanekoma holding him tighter, protective, and even if he now knows his trust is artificial… Hanekoma seems _sincere_ , so maybe it's not such a problem. Maybe he does deserve that trust.

"Well, he just admitted to wanting to kill us both," the Composer points out, "so I feel I have a say in the matter."

Anger threatens to overtake Sho, but Hanekoma keeps him from launching himself at the Composer.

"Please," Hanekoma says, and he suddenly sounds very, very tired, "we already had enough deaths today… Can we just… stop fighting each other at least for a while?"

Sho suddenly realizes that he's missing context. Since his resurrection everything is blurry in his memory. He thinks the Game is finished? Maybe? But then…

"Who's dead?" he asks, even if he's starting to think he might know.

After all, the Composer is still here, so "everyone playing against him" is a reasonable guess.

"Our dear Neku took care of Konishi," the Composer answers, "and Megumi lost his Game."  
"Yeah and then you shot Neku," Hanekoma adds.  
"I also gave him his life back afterward, it's not like I really killed him."  
"You mean, _this time_ ," Sho cannot help but comment.

The Composer giggles.

"You're funny when you're not trying to kill me."

Sho makes a face. He was definitely not trying for "funny".

(He still wants to rip out the Composer's face but maybe it's not _only_ instinct taking over anymore.)

Sho kinda zones out after that. He hears Hanekoma and the Composer talk a bit more, but he's way too exhausted to pay attention.

Sho is lying down on the roof of Pork City, looking at the night sky. Next to him, Hanekoma is humming softly, quietly letting his presence known.

"Why?" Sho asks.  
"Why what?"  
"Why did you… create me? And why didn't you say anything?"

There's a silence. Sho wonders if he's going to need to insist, but Hanekoma eventually answers.

"I feared… well, basically what happened. That Joshua would put Shibuya in danger at some point. And there wasn't anyone that seemed able to stop him then."  
"You said you didn't code me to attack him," Sho accuses.  
"And it's true. I… I didn't anticipate how much instinct from Taboo you'd inherit, nor how human you'd become nevertheless. That's why I didn't say anything at first. I didn't want to risk destroying your balance."  
"At first?"

Another silence. Sho glances at Hanekoma, who catches him looking and shrugs.

"I got attached. I just didn't want to hurt you."

Sho knows he could be lying. Sho would be forced to trust him anyway. But he wants to believe that Hanekoma is as sincere and open as he looks.

"What now?" he asks next.  
"For now, we enjoy the moment. And then we live."

Sho doesn't think it'll be that easy. But his life has never been _easy_ anyway. How could it be worse now that he has all the data to calculate a better solution?

Sho is human, and not human, and he looks at the stars.


End file.
